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The dangerous ways ads see women

Newsbytes

• Spaghetti Straps Outlawed

Newsbytes

Spaghetti Straps Outlawed

Now, several California schools have laid down the law:  No spaghetti straps, no midriffs showing, no belly button rings, no mimi-skirts and for boys no baggy low-slung pants or no underwear showing.

To further embarrass students who are judged not in compliance with these rules, school officials plan to shame them by making them remove the clothes in question and wear an athletic warm-up. (Wouldn't it be interesting if all of the students decided to go to school in clothing that break the rules. Imagine the increased budget required to buy all of those extra warm-ups. It would be a "uniform" I would proudly wear and the students might agree.)

They claim that the reason they have made these rules is because high school is a place to learn and these are distractions. Where did these educators get the idea that anyone remembers much that they had to memorize from books in high school. Probably Sunday school. High school is as much of a place to learn social skills, learn safely about sexuality, get prepared to become an adult (though in many cultures 13 year-old girls and boys are considered adults and it is perfectly common for them to start families of there own), and develop the skills necessary to deal with all of life's issues away from home and the watchful eye of parents and now an even more watchful eye of teachers.

Maybe the reason for these new rules is that it's the watchful eye of the teachers that is the real problem. That the teachers are getting distracted and so they setup rules to punishing and restrict the victims for their own inability to stay focused on educating their charges. And, it sounds like it's the principle who needs to grow up.

Of course, the braless look isn't distracting, or showing cleavage produced by push-up bras or, dare I say, falsies. Plunging necklines, V-neck sweaters without something under them, not wearing underwear under skirts, etc., those things aren't distracting. Right. If we want to remove girls/women as a distracting influence, why not require a school uniform of long skirts, long sleeve shirts with crew necks and a hajib. Oh, somebody already thought of that. But spaghetti straps?  Give me a break. - Gordon Clay